First Great Awakening:
• 1730s-1740s
• Credited founder: Jonathan Edwards (remember Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God?)
Based on Puritan/Congregationalist ideals
o Northampton, Massachusetts
o Preached personal salvation
o Discussed repentance for sins (why? Remember “declension”?)
• Other major supporter: George Whitefield (revivalist, travels through the colonies)
o More emotional, revival-like sermons and preaching
o Influences the south (slaveholders participate; try to prevent slaves from attending)
• Influence of the “backcountry” – non-wealthy colonists living further west, take new revivalism
to heart and form new sects (remember the significance of this group on Early American
History)
Second Great Awakening:
• Early 1800s; usually 1810s to as late as the 1840s
• Most known leader: Charles Grandison Finney (has appeared in related DBQ essays)
• Directly influenced by increasing political participation of common citizens
• Plays a direct role in the antebellum reform movements, especially abolitionism (but also
including temperance, prison reform, and women’s rights – remember the Mock Exam FRQ?)
• Popular in the backcountry; especially the southern Appalachian regions
• Again, slaveholders tried to prevent slaves from attending; eventually had to come up with
Christian reasons for slavery
• Role of the Second Great Awakening on the frontier? As people move away from traditional
homelands, they must search for a sense of community
• This is really where newer sects gain increased membership: Methodists, Baptists
• Also, very different sects emerge: Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists
